I live in south jersey. Seems like target in this area do not carry them
Thanks for the heads up! Went out today and bought 4 packs with the date codes starting with 30* I guess those are the 2013 ones.
I may have to get out tomorrow to see if any of these are left.
I unfortunately had to go to Wally World today and just out of curiosity, I looked to see if they had any of these batteries in stock. Only four packs of AAA for $11+/-. Clearly not worth talking about, but what I saw that y’all might find interesting is that they were the so called black tops labeled with “Made in Japan”, not China. Also they had the longer and more complicated date number, so I’m assuming they are the newer ones…
I also saw a charger with two AA and two AAA back tops that said the charger was made in China, but the batteries were made in Japan.
Just speculation on my part, but it seems that the newer black tops may also be made by Eneloop.
Checked one Target, only had AAA left, the AA’s were made in china Charger combo pack. Other Target closes in an hour. Think I won’t be able to get any more AAs.
Wally World doesn’t have regular Duraloops on sale. Only Target does. However, I did get interested enough in those Ion Cores at Wally World to buy some. They appear to be a good quality battery. And although I don’t have a charger that can measure capacity, runtime tests suggest that this battery makes pretty good on its 2400mAH rating. I’m not sure if they’re Eneloops. But they may be rebadged Eneloop XX’s. Perhaps Target is selling off their Duraloops to make room for the Ion Cores.
Got 4 packs from the other target. They had enough but a bunch had a different date code I couldn’t read. Everything I picked up is 2012 I believe.
I’m going to take a guess, as I used to work at a brewery, and we used the Julian Calendar to date things (like many manufacturers do).
3059868100
3 = 2013
059 = Day 59 (Feb 28)
868100 = Duracell’s code for a AA Eneloop (just guessing)?
Going by that standard:
2350868100 becomes…
2012
Day 350 (December 15)
868100
I grabbed the remaining packs of AAAs and more AAs from another Target that had the 50% off price (they had plenty of AAs).
All of the AAs are from 2012. Two of the AAAs are 2013, one from 2009, one from 2007.
I also noticed AAAs that were black top and “Made in China”. I passed on those.
The AAA from 2007 is probably a 1st-Gen, the ad on the back says “Retains power for up to 365 days while not in use, unlike other rechargables” and “no memory effect”.
The 2007/2009 packs don’t have the green stripe like the 2012/2013 batteries do.
That’s a nice deal. A discounted offer is much better.
Just to report my findings. I bought the remaining 4 packs of AA in the store ($6.08).
The oldest date code of the 4 packs was 2A06J3, which I take to be January 6, 2012. They have no green stripe.
All 4 pieces have a code on the sleeve at the seam. It reads 11558676LX. I take this to be Julian code for June 4, 2011. It helps to have a magnifying glass to read the code on the sleeve.
All four of these cells measured 1.310v, no load.
I have one pack with green stripes. The package code is 2350868100.
BTW, thanks all for the good info. I even found the $1.50 coupon in today’s newspaper. Score!
Edit: I forgot to mention that these 4 cells have vented positive terminals. None of the newer code packages have vented cells.
I put 3 of these cells in the charger at 1a. They took 428, 431, and 446mah, respectively. They terminated slightly warm at 1.425v measured within approximately 10 minutes after removing from the Maha.
I love it.
I also purchased many more 4-packs from Target than I thought I needed.
My wife does not know of this investment. It is a good investment at a good price.
I think I need them all.
Sorry if I wasn’t clear. I knew that they weren’t on sale. I was just checking them out b/c they happened to be right in front of me at the time. I am going to make a pilgrimage to Target on the way home tonight.
For those who have used these for a long time: what is the typical life in years of these batteries? (packs you keep as backup, not used, not charged/recharged)
I just stopped at two Targets in the north Jersey. Same result.
I picked up 4 packs of AA’s at my local target in Gastonia nc.
I picked up a couple more AAA packs in another nearby Target. These also have the 2012 codes on them. I can always use them in my remotes.
Just visited my store nearby (Northlake if you’re from around here) and they had 4 packs of AA’s, all white tops, but no AAA’s. I bought two packs. I may go back and get the other 2 if I can find a newspaper coupon. One of the ones I left was the old packaging style. A couple of other Atlanta area stores showed no stock on the web site. This store showed in stock.
Thanks to Alfredajero for texting me this deal!
Thanks for posting this deal. I think I got an old batch, but for the price they should work great for me. They all came in at 1.31v out of the package. There are about 8 packs left of each, so now if I can find that coupon...
I’m wondering about the “400x” thing…why not “1500x” if it’s an Eneloop?
I picked up two more packs. The gal at the counter knew about this deal and appreciated the coupons I brought to bring the unit price down to $4.58. She even threw in a 5 cent cashier coupon of some sort so I wouldn't have to break a bill.
I think Strick9 has it right on the newer date codes. I looked at all the packs on the shelf, and that was the only pattern I saw that made sense. It's a little odd that there is overlap in date codes in the latter half of 2012 though. I kind of wish I figured this out earlier, but the 2012 packs I got are all less than a year old.
Now I have enough Eneloop and "Eneloop" AA's to take 100,000 pictures with a single charge. :D